Page 23 of Brick

There's no hesitation on my part. I pull her into my arms and hold her. Her whole body is trembling as she buries herself in my embrace.

"Sweetness, what happened? Are you okay?" I want to pull her away so I can look her over, but that would mean letting her go, and I'm not ready for that.

"Yeah..." She clears her throat, and after holding me a second longer, she moves away on her own. "I'm okay; I just didn't know who else to call."

"It's fine. Call me whenever you need. What happened?"

She moves to the side, letting me into her place, and I see the apartment is absolutely destroyed. There are pictures and pillows everywhere. It looks like she was robbed, but nothing was taken.

"They fucking came back, didn't they?" I growl and fist my hands at my sides.

"No, no, don't worry. Uh, well, I did this." She shrugs and looks down at the floor, embarrassed.

My eyes widen as I take in her handiwork.

"Why in the hell would you do this to your own apartment?"

She huffs a breath and starts to walk away. "Oh, lay off. I had a bad night." She plops down on the sofa and glares at me, as if to let me know I was the cause of her bad night.

"Okay, well, you want me to help you clean up? I know shit can get overwhelming." It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, but if that's what she needed me for, I was here to help.

"No, I can get that done on my own. I found something." She waves me over to the couch, where she's sitting in front of a laptop.

Doing my best not to step on anything, I walk over to where she is and sit down next to her. I want to pull her into my lap just so she can be closer, but I'm not sure that's what she wants right now. I'll give her the space, at least for a little while.

"After I had my mini meltdown, I realized that it wasn't only out here that was ransacked when that guy came for me. It got me thinking: what if he wasn't here for me per se, but here looking for something? My room and Wendy's room were a mess too, and I know neither one of us did that. I looked around, and in one of my sister's favorite hiding spots was this thumb drive." Luna points to the computer, her fingers already trembling and her breathing coming in way too fast.

"What's on it?"

"Brick, I don't know what my sister was into or who these Seven-Oh-Seven people are; I'm being honest. All I know is she was sick. I never gave much thought to who was helping her stay sick. But after watching just a few seconds of that video, I know you were right. Wendy is into something that's way too big for either of us to handle on our own. I don't know how to get her out ofthis one." Her words tremble, and I see the start of tears forming on her lash line.

"Shhh, it's going to be alright. Show it to me." I lean forward, ready to see whatever's on this thumb drive. It can't be that bad.

She reaches over and presses the space bar, which starts a video on the screen. Instantly, I know my original thought about it not being that bad was wrong. It's fucking worse. Clear as day is a video of Dutch, the current leader of the Seven-Oh-Sevens, beating a man who is tied to a chair. It doesn't stop with just the beating, though; he pulls out a Glock and fires a shot point-blank at the man's head. Just when I think it's over, there's another video of a few members of the Seven-Oh-Sevens checking and bringing in crates full of automatic weapons, another video of them killing, more drugs—over and over.

When Luna turns to bury her head in my shoulder so she doesn't have to look at the screen anymore, I reach over and stop the playback. There is more than enough here to get several members of that gang sent away for life. I don't know how Wendy got her hands on something like this, but I know for sure they will kill her to get it back.

For the first time, I don't doubt the fact that she's still sober. This isn't her running off somewhere to get high. She's off somewhere fighting for her life. That is, if she's still alive.

"They must have found out that she had this. They're going to kill her. They are fucking hurting my sister like they did to those people in the video." Luna cries hard into my chest, and it's breaking me to pieces.

I'm used to her being tough as nails. I never thought she'd break down like this, but when the world seems to be crumblingaround you, it only makes sense to crumble a little right along with it.

"Hey, come on, we don't know that." I do my best to soothe her. Even as the words come out of my mouth, I know there's a very good chance she could be absolutely right about her prediction.

Luna cries for a little while longer before she takes in a deep breath and wipes the tears from her face. "Sorry."

"No, don't. You never have to apologize for your feelings around me. If you need to cry, fucking do it. Just don't lock me out." Raising my hand to her face, I swipe a tear that's perched on the tip of her nose, and she smiles softly at me.

God, this woman is beautiful. Even in her worst moments, I've never seen anyone as breathtaking as her.

"So what do we do about it? Should I give it to the cops?"

"Hell no. Sure, some of them may wind up going to jail for this, but there are far more of them who aren't on the video. The minute they find out it was you who ratted them out, nothing is going to stop them from taking revenge. Not only are you going to have to worry about your sister being killed, but yourself as well. There would be nowhere you could hide."

She nods her head as if she figured I'd say that. "So what? Tell me what to do. I'm not used to any of this."

"Well, if they were in here looking for this, it's obviously important to them. We can use this as leverage to get Wendy back. Maybe make a trade. That is, if they have her."

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